Matt Damon says best friend Ben Affleck is 'misunderstood' and blames romance with JLo for making him seem like 'a talentless meathead'

Matt Damon fiercely defends his best friend and Good Will Hunting co-star Ben Affleck in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

'There's nobody who's more misunderstood,' he says in the article published Wednesday on THR.com.

The Martian star has no doubt about why his pal has had problems with his public image, explaining: 'It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez. He just got cast as this person that he wasn't.'

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Best buddies: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, pictured in 2014, have remained close even as their individual Hollywood careers have catapulted them to stardom. Damon told THR.com his pal is 'misunderstood'

Affleck and Lopez were together for 18 months and the couple, dubbed 'Bennifer', starred together in the 2003 box office flop Gigli that was ridiculed by critics.

In September 2003, they called off their planned wedding in Santa Barbara just four days beforehand, citing 'excessive media attention.'

Affleck and Lopez parted ways in January 2004 and the following year, the actor tied the knot with his Daredevil co-star Jennifer Garner.

Bennifer: Affleck starred with Jennifer Lopez in the critically-panned box office flop Gigli. They're pictured together at the film's premiere in Los Angeles in July 2003

Doomed romance: The couple dated for 18 months but called off their planned wedding in September 2003 with just four days notice. The pop star and the actor, pictured together a month later, broke up in January 2004

But he does weigh in with a character reference, saying that Affleck's public image is far removed from the person he actually is.

'It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn't fair, you know?' the actor told The Hollywood Reporter. 'To my mind, nobody really got him at all.'

Estranged: The Armageddon star tied the knot with actress Jennifer Garner in 2005. They announced plans to divorce on June 30 but the two, pictured in LA this month, remain committed to co-parenting their three kids

The Monuments Star credits Affleck, 43, with focusing on his career and praises his determination to succeed not only as an actor but also as a director and screenwriter.

He won an Academy Award for Best Picture with the 2012 film Argo, which he wrote, directed and starred in.

'And through his work, he climbed from the bottom of the mountain all the way back up to the top and past where either of us had ever been,' Damon said.

Winner: Affleck collected a Best Picture Oscar for his 2012 film Argo that he wrote, directed and starred in. 'Through his work, he climbed from the bottom of the mountain all the way back up to the top,' Damon said

Famous friends: Affleck and Damon won Academy Awards in 1998 for Best Screenplay for the film Good Will Hunting that they also starred in together

The two who have known each other since childhood won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for 1997's Good Will Hunting, in which they both starred with the late Robin Williams, who also won an Oscar for his supporting role as a university professor.

They have both also been married for 10 years.

While Affleck and Garner announced their split on June 30, one day after their tenth wedding anniversary, Damon's marriage to former bartender Luciana Barroso is still going strong.

They will celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary in December.

Going strong: Damon, 44, has been married for 10 years to former bartender Luciana Barroso. The couple were spotted holding hands as they left a gym in West Hollywood on Wednesday

Fit: Barroso showed off her toned legs and enviable curves in cropped leggings and a scoop-necked t-shirt, while Damon was casual in jeans and a t-shirt. Despite the early hour, both wore sunglasses

Wedded bliss: Damon and Barroso, pictured at the Martian premiere in Toronto on September 11, are parents to four daughters. He said they never spend more than two weeks apart

'I remember thinking, in my early 30s, that I wouldn't [get married], you know?' Damon says in the interview which took place on the location set of the new Bourne film he's making with director Paul Greengrass in Tenerife.

'I didn't think it was going to happen for me.......And then it did.'

The actor is dad to four girls - three daughters from his marriage to Luciana and his wife's 17-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

His family is so important to him that he refuses to be parted from them for more than two weeks at a time, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

'I heard once, you spend all of this time trying to protect your heart, and then you have kids, and it's like you put it in their bodies and send them out into the world, and you can't possibly know everything that comes with that,' he explained. 'It's a very, very different way to be in the world.'

One man show: In The Martian, that opens in the US on Friday, Damon plays an astronaut left for dead on the planet Mars who must find ways to keep himself alive until he can be rescued